1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to retrieval systems for randomly stored file cards, and more particularly to a system in which the file cards are stored in cartridges, the system being provided with an automatic selector adapted to withdraw any desired card from a cartridge regardless of its placement therein, and to present the extracted cards to the operator, the selector including means to detach from the selected card any cards which stick thereto
2. Status of Prior Art
The term "card" as used herein is intended generally to cover any type of filing element which may be stacked in boxes or in any other form of file receptacle. The term therefore includes ordinary single-sheet file or tabulating cards, aperture cards in which a microfilm slide is mounted within a card aperture, microfiches and multi-channel microfiche jackets of the type disclosed in the Engelstein U.S. Pat. No. 3,238,655 as well as in the Dorman U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,439. Accordingly, the term "card" as used herein is intended to encompass any existing form of filing element formed by one or more sheets of paper, cardboard or plastic material or combinations thereof.
In an "ordered" card-filing system, the stacked cards are serially arranged in an alphabetical, numerical, or any other order in accordance with an established classification system. When in a system of the ordered type a clerk wishes to consult a particular card, he goes to the appropriate file box or drawer and then proceeds to search for that card. If, for example, the card bears identification number "126" and should be found in a file box intended for cards 100 to 199, the clerk riffles through the cards in that box until he locates card 126. After use, to avoid misfiling the clerk must be careful to return card 126 to its correct position in the proper file box.
Thus, in a conventional ordered file system, a substantial amount of clerical time is consumed not only in searching for and finding a given card, but also in returning the card to its proper position. Should the card be misfiled as a result of clerical error, the search to locate the misfiled card may take even more time.
In order to effect economies in clerical operations, data-retrieval systems have been developed adapted to extract a desired card from a stack or deck of randomly-stored cards. In existing data-retrieval systems, the system is arranged to quickly and accurately select from a large number of cards lying in face-to-face contact in a file, a particular card corresponding to a code marking or other form of identification in a master file index. The cards in any one file box may be in any random order. After being extracted from the file box for inspection, reproduction or other use, the card may be returned by the clerk to any position therein, yet it can subsequently be retrieved without difficulty.
In many random-access retrieval systems of the type in current use, the cards are formed with a series of edge notches and apertures which are sensed by sorting rods. Thus, in the well-known McBee Key Sort Card Selection System, each card, at its lower edge, has a series of equally-spaced apertures arranged in a row. These apertures define adjacent code locations or notch sites that are adapted to be selectively provided with one or more notches to facilitate, in cooperation with sorting rods, selection of a desired card from a deck of stored cards.
The Mosler retrieval system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,194 is similar to the McBee system save that in Mosler, sorting rods act to leave the desired card available for selection and removal, whereas in McBee, the sorting rods positively engage the desired card for selection and extraction from the deck. Also of background interest is the random-access system disclosed in the Doundoulakis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,545 in which the cards are formed with coded notches along their upper edges.
The Mosler and McBee systems, as well as other commercially-available random access systems involving edge-notch cards operating in conjunction with sorting-rod mechanisms are relatively elaborate and expensive. The cost of existing random-access file systems is quite high, and in some instances prohibitive, so that the file user may be compelled by economic considerations to install a non-random ordered file system despite its inherent drawbacks.
The Engelstein-Dorman U.S. Pat.No. 3,713,537, whose entire disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an easily-operated random access system in which the file cards are stored in cartridges, an automatic selector common to all the cartridges making it possible to select any desired card from a cartridge regardless of its placement therein. Instead of cards having a complex pattern of notches or apertures, all that is entailed is one or more deck of cards stored in each cartridge, each card in the deck having an upstanding tab at a longitudinal position determined by its master index number.
The longitudinal position of each upstanding tab in the card deck is related to a particular point on an incremental linear scale extending the full length of the deck. The selector includes a carriage movable to a position in registration with any desired incremental point on the scale, the carriage supporting a crane having a card picker thereon whereby when the carriage is set to a particular scale point and a switch is then actuated, the crane completes an operating cycle in the course of which it bows down over the cartridge to enable the picker to engage and clamp onto the tab of the selected card and to then lift the card to withdraw it from the cartridge.
A major advantage of a random-access system of the Engelstein-Dorman type is that it is operationally compatible with traditional filing techniques. With this random-access system, it is not necessary to abandon existing file cabinets and storage facilities employed in the traditional system, for these may readily be adapted to the new system which makes use of file-card cartridges that may be stored in existing facilities.
The Engelstein-Dorman patent points out that because a non-selected card may possibly stick to the card selected by the picker, it may be improperly removed with the selected card. In order therefore to dislodge unwanted cards from the selected card onto which the picker is clamped, a vibrator is provided for this purpose.
However, a vibrator is only effective when the cards stick together lightly. When the adhesion between adjacent cards is relatively strong, the unwanted cards continue to stick despite the vibration. This problem is particularly troublesome when the cards are microfiche jackets of the type disclosed in the Engelstein U.S. Pat. No. 3,238,655 and in the Dorman U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,439. These multi-channel jackets are formed of front and rear clear polyester or Mylar panels which are joined together by parallel ribs which define the channels. Such polyester panels are notoriously tacky; and when the jackets are stacked in face to face relation in a deck, this promotes adhesion therebetween.
When such jackets are provided with tabs, and one of the tabs in the deck of jackets is engaged by the selector picker and the selected jacket is then withdrawn from the deck, it may carry with it non-selected jackets which adhere thereto and cannot in many cases be dislodged by a vibratory action.